HH: Joined now by United States Senator John Thune from the great state of South Dakota. He along with John Cornyn, Mitch McConnell, lead the Republicans in the Senate. John Thune is the chair of the Senate Conference. Senator Thune, welcome back, always a pleasure to talk to you.

JT: Always great to be with you. Thanks, Hugh.

HH: Is the Senate staying in session in August?

JT: We will if necessary. If there are things we can do, and you know, judges we can clear, and if we can actually get the Democrats to cooperate on some appropriations bills, there are, if there are things that we can get done, yes. Our members are committed to keeping the agenda moving forward.

HH: Now let’s get more specific, because there are obviously going to be judge nominees if Judiciary does its job every two weeks and hold hearings and they’re requiring 30 hours. There are going to be a lot of nominees to work on.

JT: Yeah.

HH: Are you saying that you’re going to stay there all August if there is any nominee out of the Judiciary Committee that could be acted on?

JT: Well, you know, we’re keeping, as long as the administration will keep filling the pipeline, we’re going to keep processing them. And you know, there may be some cooperation from Democrats. I think that Senator Schumer is going to be very interested in getting his vulnerable Democrats who are running this year back home into their states. And so we’re going to be interested to see whether or not they’ll work with us to clear nominees, both judicial and executive, and whether or not they’ll help us move funding bills. And I think the next couple of months, we’ll know the answer to that. But if they don’t, and if that’s what it takes to get some of this stuff done, yeah. Our folks are committed to doing it.

HH: So pleased to welcome Marc Short, White House Director of Legislative Affairs. You can follow him on Twitter, @MarcShort45. Mr. Short, welcome, great to have you on the program.

MS: Hey, Hugh, I’m still here.

HH: Okay, good, there you are. I heard you there. Good to have you this morning. First question, what have you heard, if anything, about Justice Kennedy’s intentions?

MS: Hugh, we don’t hear anything on that front. We, he’s served America greatly, and we’ll see what his plans are, but we don’t have much information on that front.

HH: So you don’t have any indication, and there are no lists being prepared, no pre-clearances underway?

MS: Well, Hugh, I think that as the President said during the campaign, he had a list of 21 judges from which to choose from, and that list is constantly maintained if and when there’s ever a vacancy. But we are pleased that we’ve confirmed more Circuit Court judges than any administration to date, and obviously very excited about the Neil Gorsuch confirmation. And if we’re given another opportunity, I think the American people will see the President address is in the same manner and bring forward another conservative justice who respects the rule of law.

HH: I am joined by Mark Penn. He is managing director of Stagwell Group. That’s a private equity firm specializing in marketing service companies. He’s also the chairman of the Harris Poll, author of Microtrends Squared, a relatively recent new book, served as pollster/senior adviser to President Clinton for six years of his administration, also as senior strategist to Secretary of State Clinton during her 2008 presidential run. And I read to you his column from The Hill this weekend and on Monday. Mr. Penn, welcome to the program, it is great to have you on the Hugh Hewitt Show.

MP: Thank you. Good morning.

HH: How has the reaction been to your column which I read in the last segment so the audience knows exactly what you wrote?

MP: Well, unbelievable in many ways. I mean, I thought I’d kind of get out my views. You never know who’s going to read it, and I think by this time, maybe millions of people have read this column. And I think it really struck a nerve, or a chord, on what people were thinking about how this investigation has gone off the rails.

HH: Have you spoken to President Clinton since it appeared?

MP: No. I mean, you know, people I noticed try to make something of the Clintons relative to that. The only thing I said was look, I think this inspector general report is going to come back and say that the investigation on the emails was a light investigation. I don’t think that’s the Clintons’ fault. I think that’s the fault of the James Comey and what was going on at the FBI.